12/06/2016Beccles Open Beccles Amateur Sailing Club

5 Streakers lined up for the 4th annual open at BASC shared with Enterprises.

Race one saw Ian Bradley, Veronica Falat and Nick Billingsley get off to a good start leaving the other competitors to eat their dirty air as they sped off to the first mark. Fickle winds and shifty conditions combined with a receding tide, made the first beat “interesting”. Ian and Veronica stretched out a good lead leaving Mark Langston to pass Nick on the way down to mark number 4. Unfortunately for Nick the beat back was just as fickle as before and he eventually lost out to David Grief sailing in his first Streaker open. On the final half lap Veronica got the edge on Ian to take the first race.

A break for lunch saw a lot of wind and rain followed by a flat calm which had the OOD concerned about the next 2 races. However, when the wind came, the course was hurriedly set and away we went. Mark Langston was a little early for the line but managed to get away cleanly followed by Ian and Veronica, both of whom sailed a touch higher and made the first 2 marks ahead of the rest and slowly pulled out a good lead. The places swapped at the back and Nick led David over the finish line.

Race three was all to play for between the leaders with 3 points apiece. The tide was rising now and the OOD decided to make things interesting by creating a loop in the course to keep everyone on their toes. This created much more exciting racing at close quarters especially as the Enterprise fleet came to join us on the second leg of the loop. Mark came out ahead at the first loop but was quickly caught by Ian on the run preventing him from gaining the line to the next mark, this also allowed Veronica through as she followed Ian around the mark. Nick spent some time concerned about David as he caught him up on the runs but he managed to hold on till the end.